« The black panther! This is the nickname, which has remained for eternity, of Salif Keïta in Saint-Étienne. The Malian striker marked the club of the Greens so much that it adopted a black panther as its mascot and emblem in 1970. It is because the native of Bamako (1946) built his legend in Saint-Étienne in five seasons , scoring 185 goals in 140 matches. An outstanding striker, Salif Keïta contributes to the fame of the ASSE club which dominated the French championship in the 1970s. With the Greens, Salif Keïta won three French championship titles (1968, 1969, 1970) and finished silver boot, second top scorer in the European championships, with 42 goals during the 1972 season.
Its history with Saint-Étienne is punctuated by legends and anecdotes. The first was the discovery of this talent, nicknamed “Domingo” who made the heyday of the clubs of the Malian capital, Real de Bamako and Stade Malien. He fell under the spell of a certain Charles Dagher, a fervent supporter of AS Saint-Étienne, based in Bamako. At the insistence of this Lebanese trader, the president of the Greens Roger Rocher ends up sending a plane ticket to invite the Malian attacker to participate in an internship. ” My departure for France was rumored. As I was afraid that they would not let me leave Mali, I decided to fly to Monrovia in Liberiatells Salif Keïta to the newspaper The Team in 2014. Before getting there, I crossed the Ivory Coast in the trunk of a car ».
A taxi for history
Victim of a theft in Monrovia, Keïta also sees his plane, which was to land at Le Bourget airport, where the leaders of Saint-Etienne are waiting for him, being diverted to Orly because of the fog. The Malian disembarks, sees no one welcoming him, and asks a taxi to take him to ” Geoffroy-Guichard, in Saint-Etienne “. Five hundred kilometers and a race billed at 1,000 French francs at the time (150 euros) President Roger will never regret this investment and the anecdote will inspire the song ” A taxi for Geoffroy-Guichard ».
The beautiful love story between Salif Keïta and Saint-Étienne ended in 1972 when he decided to join Olympique de Marseille, considering that he was “exploited” by the Greens. President Roger takes revenge by revealing to the Football League the signing of an illegal clause in the contract between Keïta and ASSE. The new OM striker is suspended for six months. He returned in time to play the league match between Marseille and Saint-Étienne, scored a decisive goal, and gave his ex-president a thumbs-up. He is again suspended… 6 months.
He will remain only one season at OM where he scored 12 goals in 23 matches. Pushed to naturalize French to allow the club to play other foreigners, Keïta refuses and is transferred to Spain in Valencia. After three seasons in Spain, then three more in Portugal (Sporting), he decided to try the American adventure by signing with New England Tea Men, a Boston club. At the same time, “Domingo” is studying management at university and begins a retraining at the end of his contract by working in an American bank before returning to Mali.
DTN, president of the Football Federation, actor…
In his native country, Salif Keïta had been adored very early on. Talented and precocious, he was the youngest international in the history of the Eagles of Mali, with a first convocation in 1963 at only 16 years old. Star of the clubs Real de Bamako and Stade Malien, he was unsuccessful twice in a row in the final of the African Cup of Champions Clubs in 1965 (Stade Malien) and 1965 (Real de Bamako). He also lost the 1972 CAN final with Mali against Congo-Brazzaville.
When he returned to Mali, Salif Keïta, who had invested in the hotel industry and who worked in a local bank, was appointed National Technical Director (DTN). He wants to set up a development plan for Malian football by creating training centers inspired by European models. But he doesn’t have free rein. He resigns. ” I had made a program with one objective: the CAN or the World Cup. For this, it was necessary to start from scratch, to train “, he confided in Release in 2002. Three years later, he was elected president of the Mali Football Federation (Femafoot). He will only serve a four-year term before retiring and devoting himself to his activities and to the Salif-Keïta training center which he created in 1994. It is in this school that many Malian internationals including his nephew and future captain of the national team, Seydou Keïta.
Decorated with the Legion of Honor on July 14, 2014, Salif Keïta has two stadiums that bear his name in France, in Saint-Étienne and Cergy. He will also have rubbed shoulders with the cinema with the Guinean director Cheik Doukouré who is inspired by the life of the Malian footballer for his film ” The Golden Ball “. Salif Keita plays the role of Karim, coach of Bandian, a young Guinean passionate about football who leaves his village to join Europe in order to realize his dream of becoming a professional. In the last scene of the film, the young footballer asks a taxi to take him… to Saint-Étienne.
2023-09-02 14:41:06
#Salif #Keïta #flight #Malian #Eagle
